The following are registered in the "Nautical Almanac," with their latitudes and

NOTE. While this sheet is passing through the press, we learn the discovery of another planetoid by Mr Searle, of Albany, in the United States, not yet named, making the fiftyfifth known member of the

group.

GEOGRAPHY

CHAPTER I.

a description of the earth, as the term imports - is a science of early cultivation, but only in very recent times has maritime and inland discovery been conducted upon such a scale as to furnish enlarged and accurate knowledge of the features of the terrestrial globe. The enterprise of the commercialist, the career of the warrior, and professedly scientific expeditions, have each contributed to extend the acquaintance of man with the earth he occupies. The first cause came into operation the earliest, and has been the most influential. Difference of climate yielding diverse productions gave rise to the desire in one district to possess what was only to be obtained in another, upon which the mutual intercourse of inhabitants by land expeditions for the purpose of traffic was grafted, which became subservient to the expansion of geographical knowledge. In

M

the earliest notices of Egypt that occur in profane history, we find it become the centre of an extensive land commerce. The merchants of Ethiopia brought gold, and ivory, and slaves; the Phoenicians, wine and timber; the Arabians, incense and spice; the Egyptians giving in exchange their corn, fine linen, robes, and carpets. The company of traders going down to Egypt, to whom Joseph was sold by his brethren, is the earliest recorded instance of a foreign commercial transaction, and has all the genuine features of a caravan crossing the desert at the present hour. Commerce likewise materially assisted to lay the foundation of oceanic adventure, and gradually to improve the means of conducting it with safety, the frail and simple raft that was paddled along the rivers giving place to the stronger vessel fitted to encounter the perils of the sea. Tyre and Sidon communicated with

Western Europe through their mariners, and their merchant princes trafficked with India on the east. Thus was obtained by the nations on the east and south banks of the Mediterranean, and bordering thereto-the primitive seat of civilisation-a general acquaintance with each other's localities, and more distant regions, afterwards increased by the military expeditions of Alexander, and the all-absorbing ambition of Rome. But the world, as known to the ancients, was a very paltry span. Of the whole western Continent- of the greater part of Africa-of North-eastern Europe-of Northern Asia and its eastern limits Ptolemy, the last and most accomplished geographer of antiquity, was entirely ignorant; and with him the cultivation of geography and astronomy may be said to have terminated, till their mutual revival by the subjects of the Eastern caliphs. In those views of the earth embraced by the Arabs, the Homeric notion of a circumambient ocean had a place. The dry land was conceived to be bounded by a zone of waters, which was its absolute limit; the Atlantic receiving the title of the Sea of Darkness, and the northern ocean that of the Sea of Pitchy Darkness. It is little more than three centuries and a half since the shroud of mystery was removed from the western flood by the bold hand of Columbus, and light was poured upon the Sea of Darkness. A course of discovery was then commenced which has now opened to our view a tolerably exact map of the world-the extent and configuration of its great natural divisions of land and sea, with their respective superficial characteristics. There yet remains however to be unveiled a considerable portion of "terra incognita," chiefly situated within the arctic and antarctic circles, in Central Africa, and in Australasia; and we have still much to learn with reference to the geographical character of regions which have long been known and repeatedly visited.

Geography, in the widest acceptation of the term, embraces a description of the true figure and motions of the earth- the aspect of the superficies, and the mode in which its respective parts have been arranged; with the extent, population, resources, knowledge, and arts of particular localities. These are the Mathematical, Physical, and Civil branches of the subject; to the second of which the present section is devoted. It is the province of the physical geographer to deal with the features of the external surface of the earth's mass; and, in strictness of meaning, this is the boundary of his department. But it is customary also to treat of atmospheric phenomena and influence; of the variations of climate and temperature; of the distribution of the different classes of organised beings; and of the causes which have determined the distribution-an arrangement which it is difficult to follow without trenching upon ground occupied by other sciences. It is desirable, however, to respect the boundaries which belong to the various branches of physical enquiry; and therefore, while it will be impossible to abstain from touching the domains of Geology, Botany, and Zoology, the avoidance of a trespass will be studied.

The terrestrial surface presents us with areas of land and water constituting two great Natural Divisions. The outlines of each are in a state of constant change; but the alteration proceeds so slowly, that apparently they are the same at present, with a few comparatively unimportant exceptions, as at the earliest date of geographical information. There is a remarkable difference in the extent of these divisions. The whole area of the globe includes about 197 millions of square miles, of which seven-tenths are usually given as the proportion of space occupied by the waters, approaching to 138 millions of square miles, leaving less than 60 millions for the area of the land. The distribution of the two is also as unequal as their extent. If we take London to be the centre of a hemisphere,

it will contain by far the greater portion of all the land upon the face of the globe. The opposite hemisphere, of which the antipodes of London will be the centre a point to the south-east of New Zealand, near to Antipodes Island-will be a territory in which the ocean immensely preponderates, the principal tracts of land consisting of Australasia, and the southern extremity of South America. If we consider the two hemispheres into which the earth is divided by the equator, and the zones into which each is subdivided, the unequal distribution of the land and water will also be very apparent. Regarding the whole area of each zone as represented by 1, the proportion of land has been stated as follows:

The great preponderance of the land on the north of the equator over that on the south is obvious from this estimate. The former is in proportion to the latter as 16 to scarcely 5. The proportionate quantity of each, in each zone, according to the preceding statement, may be thus expressed :

The superficial extent of the land in each zone is generally estimated to be :

The course of recent discovery, especially since the year 1838, renders some modification of these tables necessary in the case of the south frigid zone. Down to the time of Captain Cook it was generally believed that a great continent existed around the antarctic pole, which figures in the ancient maps as "Terra Australis Incognita." This idea was founded upon the loose reports of some southern voyagers, and upon the presumption that such a continent must necessarily exist to counterbalance the mass of land in the northern hemisphere. The second voyage of Cook was expressly designed to solve the problem, and, after penetrating into high southern latitudes without finding anything but a few islands, the supposed continent was given up, and land was imagined to exist only slightly depressed beneath the surface of the ocean. Within a recent interval the enterprise of France has sent out Dumont d'Urville, that of America Charles Wilkes, and that of England James Clark Ross; and an extensive coast-line has been discovered, probably the boundary of a south polar continent. The preceding calculation, therefore, requires alteration so far as it relates to the south frigid zone, but this will not affect the general statement of the quantity of land in the northern hemisphere being still vastly greater than that in the southern.

The waters of the globe circumscribing the land form one great continuous ocean. This is divided by imaginary lines into various parts, to each of which a distinct name is assigned, for the sake of clear and easy reference. The following are five grand divisions: